Fotos Y Recuerdos / Photos + Memories

2007

I have a picture of youThat I kiss every night before going to bedIt’s kind of torn and it’s already starting to fadeFor all the tears I’m crying over itIt’s all that I have left of your loveOnly pictures and memories

This tribute to the “missing” and murdered of Ciudad Juarez intends to provoke discussion and raise awareness on issues of production, consumption and violence against women. Women arrive in Ciudad Juarez from villages all over Mexico, seeking work sewing clothing and assembling small appliancesin production factories (maquiladoras) that have mushroomed along the border as a result of NAFTA.

The disruption this radical change brings--moving from the intimacy of village life to the anonymity of factories and life on the poverty-stricken edge of a big city---signals a profound loss of identity. An icon of identity, the fingerprint symbolizes this loss while referencing the anonymity of factory production. This edition of digitally embroidered fingerprints were sold in support of Casa Amiga Rape Crisis Centre in Ciudad Juarez-- the only centre of its kind on the entire Mexican side of the border.

The deep pink wall colour-- ‘rosa mexicana’ or ‘mexican pink’-- is key to this work. Often used on houses in poor Mexican neighbourhoods, this colour references both class and gender. The photos represent just a small number of victims, but succeed in putting faces to statistics. The audio excerpts from actual testimonial accounts by mothers of victims are punctuated by Selena performing Fotos Y Recuerdos; “queen of Tejano” singers, Selena was also brutally murdered at the age of 23.